Sceptile has made its rise to the #1 used pokemon in RU for the month with cofagrigus gone, with Nidoqueen close behind at #2. Both are very solid pokemon that deserve to be high up in usage, but i personally think sceptile should be in the top ten range instead of #1, but thats just me. Hitmonlee at #7 is kinda sad imo, because its easy to see that everyone is using the shitty fake out unburden set instead of reversal Lee or just NewBreed's fighting gem set, honestly, in a metagame where cress is deemed a big threat, i cant justify hitmonlee being so high up. Sandslash falls 6 spots from #11 to #17, which is good, but not good enough. Especially when almost all of them are the worst possible sandslash set. Dusknoir is now #12 which i find sort of odd, i wonder why people are using it, any thoughts? Munchlax is actually going UP in usage, which is just sad because nothing changed to make it any more viable >_>. Looking at potential tier shifts, Cincinno is the closest pokemon to moving up to RU, with amoonguss and absol close behind. Roselia, Scolipede, Primeape, Mandibuzz, and Mesprit are all near NU range. Looking at UU, Houndoom is the closest thing to dropping, but sadly it is nowhere near the 3.41% mark =(. Last but not least, its interesting to see that stoutland didnt make much of a splash, sitting well into NU range, your escavalier are safe!

One last thing for your troubles because lol

| 62 | Cresselia | 1232 | 2.405% | 1014 | 2.393% |

| 85 | Durant | 499 | 0.974% | 352 | 0.831% |

NU Cress and Durant 2012 lgi?

(the reason both of them are so low is thanks to the fact that they were reintroduced in the middle of the month, combine that with the fact that bad PS ladder kiddies dont read the forums and are therefore not aware that they are allowed, and you have stupidly low usage for our new suspects :3).

Cresselia and Durant need more usage people, CM cresselia is impossible to stop without dark types (and if they're not physically boosting sets they just stall it...) and durant 2HKOs everything even without boosts >.> (and CB durant is just insanely strong)

Good to see sceptile getting #1 usage, imo it deserves it, I'd only regard Nidoqueen or Slowking as possibly more deserving of the spot. (well really it should be cresselia, but we'll have to wait for that). It's just so threatening with its versatility and speed.

I have to agree with hitmonlee being too high, it's almost worthless against any team with a ghost type or bulky wall such as tangrowth/alomomola/cresselia, especially when it isn't running bulk up.

Moderator

So I'm going to start by saying that I'm taking all the credit for that sliver of Kangaskan usage, and that's it a really solid 'mon and should be used more :< Now that that's out of the way, there's a couple numbers I want to comment on:

As mentioned prior, Hitmonlee is too high in usage, it's a still a pretty ineffectual spinner, defensive teams should usually have Psychic- and Ghost-types to keep in check rather well (ik they can be played around, but that's the how the game works :I), and I know that personally all my offensive teams keep a failsafe or two+a fair amount of priority for combatting Unburden sets simply because of how threatening it can be on paper. In a similar vein of 'mons that shouldn't be as high usage as they are, Dusknoir, Typhlosion, and Galvantula all stand out to me. Dusknoir's niche over opposing Ghost-types is miniscule, and from what I've seen on the ladder the players aren't playing to it, so that's disappointing :[ Typhlosion has always seemed rather meh to me, with the only potentially enticing set being Choice Specs, but I suppose the concept of CS Eruption is just too good for people to pass up. Still, with 'Tops, Slowking, and Aero being as common as they are, it just doesn't seem worth using over Pokemon like Moltres and Entei, who can find there way around such Pokemon and are generally better more often than not. As for Galvantula, this comes down more to application. I've been using Galvantula quite a bit myself in this metagame, and it requires a lot of support to work well. It needs Spikes, it appreciates a spinner, it needs something to threaten dedicated special walls, Galvantula needs some real support if you don't want it to turn into a poor man's Manetric / Accelgor. I haven't been seeing that on a lot of Galvantula teams, and it shows up.

This makes me kinda sad :[ Maybe all the people running Quag encountered a reasonable niche for it, but when push comes to shove Poliwrath is the better defensive 'mon 9 times out of 10.

The Cress and Durant usage, while it does reflect my laddering experiences, needs to go up. I dunno, maybe people are unaware they are available or something, but when you've seen easily 5x more Dusknoir then you have Cress, something is wrong. Also Lunar Dance Cress is a sexy beast and an amazing pivot for offensive teams .-.

I've noticed that the metagame hasn't changed very much in terms of play style, when compared to last month. Offense is still the same as is balanced. I think, however, that with Cresselia in the tier balance has more of a chance and offensive will go down slightly.

Cresselia can also set up weather, so the percentage of weather can increase slightly.

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People are either trolling me, or I genuinely played that many games with him in my teams. That said, I applaud as people manage to get Sandslash knocked down a peg. Not enough of a peg that I'd be ultimately satisfied (I want him to stop being used in RU permanently), but one where I can relax with my usage of this Ghost in RU and move him up to UU so people do not get mad at me (as well as typical /B/utterfree shenanigans which actually are slowly working, even if not as effectively as I had hoped). That said, I apologize if my usage of Dusknoir has caused people's faces to redden.

| 25 | Electivire | 4687 | 9.151% | 3754 | 8.861% |

Eh, the usage of this mon going up suddenly stopped my smile and turned it into me being nonplussed again. I guess people are using him correctly? I just don't see why Electivire warrants more usage than Lanturn, personally.

This is most appalling of all. I get that SubSeed isn't great (I guess people are using SubSeed less?), but Ferroseed has also been proven to be terribad by many people. That it's being used above quite a few things other than Whimsicott also dismays me, but I'm certain I can either fix this or otherwise let Ferroseed be without gambling my reputation in the process (which, by the way, is what I always do when trying out different Pokes).

Also, I'm going to laugh as this is the most satisfying outcome this month has brought, even if it isn't really all that satisfying even in my own opinion.

These are probably some of the worst stats yet. Of course, Cresselia and Durant weren't around for the entire month so the stats don't really reflect that, but there should have been some improvement. Hitmonlee, Typhlosion, Dusknoir, Clefable, Sandslash, Tangrowth, and Feraligatr should all be used much less. It's a bit strange that people have been using stuff that was popular back in February and the spring, but it's probably mostly newer players using these things. If you want to know what's good right now, the np thread is the place to go.

I think that a ton of players have been picking out Pokemon that look good at first glance, stats wise, type wise, etc, but not thinking about how they actually function in the metagame.

For example, @Ghostbone, take a look at Munchlax. Munchlax looks like it would be a great Pokemon; it walls a ton of special attackers, absorbs sleep, and can phaze the opponent. However, in practice, Munchlax has very poor performances. It must rely on Rest to recover, and it does not have the benefit of Leftovers recovery. This makes it worn down extremely easily—even by the special attackers it's supposed to counter! (252 SpA Life Orb Sceptile Focus Blast vs. 76 HP / 232+ SpD Eviolite Munchlax: 161-190 (37.44 - 44.18%) -- guaranteed 3HKO). Munchlax doesn't even have any offensive presence, and Body Slam means that it will get set up on by Kabutops and such. Sure, it has Whirlwind, but Sleep Talk is unreliable and Kabutops can wear down Munchlax anyways since Munchlax is powerless. The "hate" for Munchlax IS justified.

Another example, Dusknoir. Just because Cofagrigus left the tier and we lack good Ghost-types DOES NOT mean we should automatically recklessly search for a substitute. There is no substitute for Cofagrigus, it was a unique spinblocker. Just because Dusknoir has high defenses DOES NOT mean that it is Cofagrigus's replacement. Dusknoir is a very poor Pokemon that cannot fulfill its spinblocking role against the most popular Rapid Spinners. Furthermore, Pokemon such as Rotom and Misdreavus have much more utility, and should be used instead of Dusknoir if you're desperate. Dusknoir just does not function well at all in RU and should not be #12.

This post is getting a bit long but I think I'll address the other Pokemon in my first paragraph. Hitmonlee should not be #7 because, even before Cresselia, Psychic-types such as Uxie and Slowking were extremely popular and Hitmonlee is useless against them, not to mention that it gets wrecked by priority such as Entei's ExtremeSpeed. Typhlosion is completely useless after it can't spam a Scarf Eruption anymore, which is nearly 100% of the time; with Stealth Rock and priority around, Typhlosion's Eruption will be weak, and its other STAB move, Fire Blast, is too weak to do any sort of damage to defensive teams. Clefable is decent, but should not be in the top 20 since it gets worn down easily in such an offensive metagame. Sandslash is as bad as always, it fails to spin against almost every Ghost-type in the tier, unless it is running the SD Lum set which no one is using. Tangrowth hasn't been great since Escavalier and Nidoqueen entered the tier, and I have no idea why it is still being used with Durant and Cresselia back. Feraligatr is another oddball—Grass-types such as Rotom-C, Lilligant, and Sceptile have been abundant, and Feraligatr no longer thrives in the metagame as it once did.

Hopefully people start reading the posts in the np thread and the Viability thread, because they really show what's good in the current metagame and what's not.

I love how I can clearly see DittoCrow is theory moning ive used typhlosion with specs modest fire blast just damn the power!and Sandslash is worth using but is lackluster since the sand ban and WHY DOES NOBODY USE THE DAMN STANDERD SPINNING SET!but your other points I agree with.

Dusknoir. The only thing it has over Spiritomb is a little more power. Both of their HP stats are too low to abuse their great defensive stats. Also, Spiritomb has taunt to prevent foreseight and further spinblock. Oh, but Dusknoir has the elemental punches! You know what that means? Diddly. There are far better options than it offensively, and this needs to be fixed.

Man you people get worked up about people using pokeymans. Lately, usage threads have been about 80% "STOP USING THIS GODDAMN"....sorry I just think it's annoying. I could complain about people using Drapion because that thing sure as hell has never given me any trouble and always seems like the biggest pushover. But I don't, because who gives a ham? Apparently Drapion works out for some people. Apparently Sandslash and Dusky work out for others.

I'm a bit disheartened that the majority of players doesn't seem to mind Nidoqueen. I still think it's too strong and has no counters. I said this before in some other thread, but the most prevalent argument for keeping her seems to be "she's slow and easily revenged". Yea but when she resists rocks, absorbs t-spikes, is immune to toxic and t-wave AND doesn't take life orb recoil, what's keeping her from just switching out and coming back a hundred times on the one or two mons on your team that can't touch her?

I know Cresselia has been dropped to try and give it some balance, but it's not the right answer for me. I never liked Cress in ANY metagame so I may be biased against her but to me she's just too much of a DERP button that walls too much shit without thinking and doesn't even have to rely on crappy rest because she gets moonlight. RU is by far my favorite tier to play, but I gotta say that I liked it way better before Nido & Cress.

Dusknoir. The only thing it has over Spiritomb is a little more power. Both of their HP stats are too low to abuse their great defensive stats. Also, Spiritomb has taunt to prevent foreseight and further spinblock. Oh, but Dusknoir has the elemental punches! You know what that means? Diddly. There are far better options than it offensively, and this needs to be fixed.

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1. Yes, both Spiritomb and Dusknoir are very average Pokemon who could use a little more base HP to be a lot more effective.

2. Dusknoir also has Taunt. And Pursuit. And Sucker Punch. I'd re-examine his movepool before speaking about what Spiritomb has over him other than a secondary Dark-typing and capabilities of going mixed offensively.

3. I used Dusknoir a lot in DPP OU when I needed a spinblocker. I also used him in RU, although not to the point of putting him in the top 15 threshold (As much as I want to be cool like ShakeItUp, I can't do 5500 games all by myself).

Man you people get worked up about people using pokeymans. Lately, usage threads have been about 80% "STOP USING THIS GODDAMN"....sorry I just think it's annoying. I could complain about people using Drapion because that thing sure as hell has never given me any trouble and always seems like the biggest pushover. But I don't, because who gives a ham? Apparently Drapion works out for some people. Apparently Sandslash and Dusky work out for others.

Click to expand...

I am also guilty of the "STOP USING THIS GODDAMN" trend you find annoying, and I sincerely apologize for contributing to it. While I am dismayed by people overly using the underwhelming Electivire (as an example among many), there's nothing I can really do other than use Lanturn and Rotom-F more often, among many better RU Electric-types (I've also tried Manetric, which worked rather well). Sometimes I try various pseudo-Dark Horse shenanigans to be contributory to the usage thresholds (i.e. I try SubRoost Braviary and see if it's as good as everyone says it is, and the other people who use it are correct and awesome for using it).

Oiawesome:
If you look at the moveset statistics, 50.404% of Typhlosion held a Choice Scarf, which is a bad set and is why I said that it shouldn't be #10 in usage. Entei and Moltres are much better choices for Fire-types, and Moltres, being one of the biggest threats in the metagame, is 10 spots below Typhlosion. I also don't know what you're talking about with Sandslash, the sand ban does not affect RU. And 94.5% of Sandslash are not running the only decent set, SD Lum.

Also the Munchlax calc was demonstrating how it gets worn down easily by the #1 Pokemon in the tier, who is mostly used as a special attacker. It's just not a good Pokemon and should have dropped to NU a while ago. There's a Smog article that includes Munchlax here.

This thread is for commenting on the usage stats, something like how you feel about certain threats belongs in the np thread. On this topic, I think that Nidoqueen's usage is still justified because it can still wreck through teams once Cresselia is weakened. It may only drop a few places next month, if anything!

RU Co-Leader

Im surprised people arent using Zangoose more tbh, its a really good wallbreaker and late game cleaner in the RU metagame. With the addition of a toxic boost facade to its arsenal, zangoose is one of the hardest pokemon to switch into in the tier, not even physically defensive cresselia can take two toxic boost facades from this nigga, he has excellent coverage in close combat and night slash, and even has decently powerful priority to top it all off. If your really ballsy and have pursuit support, you can even slap swords dance on him to OHKO pretty much the entire tier. Zangoose's only 100% counter is spiritomb from my experience, and tomb isnt that hard to play around imo. Zangoose may suffer from relative fraility and being on a timer, but from my BW2 experiences with the mighty mongoose, it isnt uncommon to be on a 3 turn timer and get 3 KOs in 3 turns, im just wondering why people havent thought to use this guy more? Oh ya, here are some damage calculations of the sheer bone crushing power zangoose has going for it.

1. Yes, both Spiritomb and Dusknoir are very average Pokemon who could use a little more base HP to be a lot more effective.

2. Dusknoir also has Taunt. And Pursuit. And Sucker Punch. I'd re-examine his movepool before speaking about what Spiritomb has over him other than a secondary Dark-typing and capabilities of going mixed offensively.

3. I used Dusknoir a lot in DPP OU when I needed a spinblocker. I also used him in RU, although not to the point of putting him in the top 15 threshold (As much as I want to be cool like ShakeItUp, I can't do 5500 games all by myself).

I am also guilty of the "STOP USING THIS GODDAMN" trend you find annoying, and I sincerely apologize for contributing to it. While I am dismayed by people overly using the underwhelming Electivire (as an example among many), there's nothing I can really do other than use Lanturn and Rotom-F more often, among many better RU Electric-types (I've also tried Manetric, which worked rather well). Sometimes I try various pseudo-Dark Horse shenanigans to be contributory to the usage thresholds (i.e. I try SubRoost Braviary and see if it's as good as everyone says it is, and the other people who use it are correct and awesome for using it).

Click to expand...

Oops, sorry I was thinking of Dusclops' moves and I didn't know dusknoir got anything that dusclops didn't.

Dusknoir. The only thing it has over Spiritomb is a little more power. Both of their HP stats are too low to abuse their great defensive stats. Also, Spiritomb has taunt to prevent foreseight and further spinblock. Oh, but Dusknoir has the elemental punches! You know what that means? Diddly. There are far better options than it offensively, and this needs to be fixed.

Click to expand...

Wrong. Spiritomb is actually stronger than Dusknoir once you factor in its strongest STAB move(lol shadow punch for Dusknoir) for the offensive stat they will actually use.(I know Tomb uses both, but his STAB moves are stronger because better BP on any set).
Lol taunt Spiritomb, is this some kind of joke? Spiritomb is way too slow to take advantage of that. Also, Foreseight is a joke of a move that is only used by the worst spinners in the tier(the hitmons) that lose to Spiritomb anyway, and unless you have Smeargle as your pokemon to set hazards, chances are you can get them up again without even trying later on.

Can moveset stats be removed from the op? They make me cry because they are so bad(Scarf Typh at 50%, Max Hp Magmortar with 20%, Fake Out being used by >50% of Hitmonlee, and more).

Let me get one thing out here: Dusknoir is pretty awful and has no reason to be used over Spiritomb, not to mentionn you're better off running Golurk for the power.

Anyways, these stats are a pretty mixed bag. I have a ton to say about these stats so...

My Thoughts on This Month's Stats

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| 1 | Sceptile | 10082 | 19.684% | 7879 | 18.598% |

So after Cofa's departure, this takes the throne. Well deserved for such an awesome Pokemon in RU.

| 12 | Dusknoir | 5585 | 10.904% | 4782 | 11.288% |

What is this crap? Dusknoir in Top 15 is beyond me.

| 17 | Sandslash | 5348 | 10.442% | 4627 | 10.922% |

Give me a moment to scream in horror at this exceeding Cryogonal in usage. Sandslash is seriously one of the worst spinners in RU and really has no use unless you wanted to run Manual Sand.

| 25 | Electivire | 4687 | 9.151% | 3754 | 8.861% |

Oh gosh...This piece of shit being high in RU. We've officially got the RU version of Ambipom.

| 35 | Escavalier | 3824 | 7.466% | 3155 | 7.447% |

This being lower than Electivire and Hitmonchan in usage saddens me. Escavalier really needs Top 20 at least. I've used this extensively and it is awesome. A massive Attack stat, great defensive typing and the defenses to compliment them only show how good it is. Shit speed also makes it a viable Trick Room candidate. And it doesn't even need a movepool since Megahorn and Iron Head are all he needs. Such a shame to see such a good Pokemon lower than where it should be.

| 38 | Ferroseed | 3490 | 6.814% | 3102 | 7.322% |

Heh...This is still not too bad. Ferroseed still gets the job done when he needs to.

| 44 | Qwilfish | 3033 | 5.922% | 2632 | 6.213% |

This along with Ferroseed on the fall...Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

| 47 | Poliwrath | 2529 | 4.938% | 2103 | 4.964% |

One of the better Pokemon in RU sitting this low is out of my description. Poliwrath is one of the tankiest mons in the tier and can be an effective wall or even a SubPuncher if you wanted. Sad to see him this low.

| 48 | Omastar | 2515 | 4.910% | 1985 | 4.685% |

How sad to see one of the strongest Pokemon in RU this low in usage.

| 51 | Munchlax | 2435 | 4.754% | 1972 | 4.655% |

This is kinda appalling. I wonder who's using this thing even though it's been deemed the worst RU Pokemon.

| 53 | Mesprit | 1882 | 3.674% | 1584 | 3.739% |

What in the world is one of the most diverse and FanFuckingTastic Pokemon in RU is doing this low in RU usage?

| 54 | Primeape | 1801 | 3.516% | 1501 | 3.543% |

Just a little less usage, please. It's time for Primeape to go from RU

| 56 | Scolipede | 1705 | 3.329% | 1481 | 3.496% |

The thought at this close to being NU is kinda scary!

| 57 | Cinccino | 1597 | 3.118% | 1296 | 3.059% |

Could this actually break into RU? It's not in rising range but it's quite close to coming!

| 69 | Stoutland | 976 | 1.906% | 746 | 1.761% |

As expected, this is going to fall into the pit of despair known as NU. Poor Stoutland, how I knew you well.

| 88 | Zangoose | 465 | 0.908% | 351 | 0.829% |

This not even getting 1% usage in RU is outrageous. It's ridiculously powerful and needs far more usage than this.

This are the worst RU Stats ever. Simply because don't reflect the actual situation of the metagame, even although Cresselia and Durant cannot be used so much, there a lot of things that are wrong. For example, Hitmonlee shoudn't be #7 never, even before the Cresselia retest; Hitmonlee is really easy to deal with since there a lot of ways to stop it such as carry one Pychic-type or Ghost-type like Uxie, Slowking or Misdreavus or carry a priority user like Choice Band Entei or Kabutops, in conjuction with most the player use Fake Out in the Unburden set instead Mach Punch, or even the Reversal set that make Hitmonlee worst.

Other Pokemons like Galvantula, Dusknoir, Aerodactyl, Clefable, Sandslash, Feraligatr, Electivire or Hitmonchan are in the same boat and should be low, and any of those should not be even in top 50 like Dusknoir or Sandslash >: And still there a lot of goods Pokemon that are overlooked; stuff like Qwilfish, Poliwrath, Omastar, Braviary or Zangoose are good examples.

I expect that this situations change a bit in this month, and we would have a stats don't are embarrasing.